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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Kellie drove on, allowing Mark to settle in to the warmth and safety of the car. She watched him as he stared out the window into the still falling rain. "A penny for your thoughts?""I don't know that the are worth a penny. You might be better to toss them in a wishing well. The return might be more gainful.""I'll take my chances with the investment." She smiled warmly at him and then looked back at the highway. "I know you have questions as to how I know you and where you want to...Need to go. They are not easy questions to answer and you will need an open mind to understand and believe them. That will be entirely up to you, Mark."He turned his body to face hers. She looked so familiar and yet he was certain he did not know this young woman. "I am listening, Kellie. Tell me what I want to know, please.""One year ago, almost to the day, you and your family set out on a vacation. You were going skiing as I am sure you recall. Your dreams and talking in your sleep have told me that much. Half way up the mountain, your vehicle got stuck in a hole.""I know all of this! Tell me something I do NOT know!""Patience Mark. It will all come together when I am finished. You left them in the vehicle to get help at the bottom of the mountain. While you were going down the slope, you saw another vehicle going towards your family. The vehicle contained three hunters on their way to the same resort you were going to. Shortly after you saw them reach your family, you saw the Explorer you were driving go over the side of the mountain."Mark buried his face in his hands. He began to cry as the memories flooded his mind. The screams were slipping back into his ears and he wanted to ask her to stop. He wanted to beg her not to go back there again... wanted to but knew somehow that he couldn't stop it. Kellie waited for him to look back at her before she continued."The men were not good men, Mark. You later learned that they had not stopped to rescue your wife and daughters. They were going to hurt them in bad ways. Your family fought, as you could hear from where you had stopped on the mountain. In the fight, one of the men was hurt badly.""He said he had tried to pull Callie from the Explorer and she had clawed his face and kicked him in the head." He began to cry again. "HE said she fought like a wild animal. She hurt him so badly that he was only semi-awake through the rest of the ordeal! I never believed him, you know! He was lieing to us all and the stupid lawyers believed his story!""Well they had only his words to go on, Mark. Right or wrong, it was how the legal paper-work fell out. He said that he saw the other two men grab your daughters and pull them from the truck. You heard them calling out to you Mark. It is a sound that has haunted you for a year.""He said that they did things and then tossed them back into the Ford. I couldn't help them Kellie!" His voice became louder as he spoke. "Do you understand that I could hear all that was happening!? I knew what those men were doing and I was helpless! No, not helpless! I was useless to do anything to stop them or help my daughters or my beautiful wife!" His sobbing filled the car and Kellie found her self crying now. How she wished she could end his pain sooner but she dared not go to fast. She needed something from Mark as much as he did from her. To let her emotions take over now would take away all of the reasons she was here, in the car with this man."Mark, I need to finish this before we reach Laredo. The man told the courts that they could hear your screams coming up the mountain side. Your voice echoed as if you were nearly standing next to them. The men began to panic. They winched the Explorer so that it was almost of the side of the mountain road. They unhooked the winch and then pushed the vehicle the rest of the way over the side. Your wife and daughters went to the bottom of the canyon, never to be seen again. He said they screamed all the way down so he knew they were alive when the other two men pushed them over. He passed out and the two other men must have thought him dead. They must have figured he would be blamed for it all and so they left him, laying in the snow. When he woke next, the police and rescue units were at the site where the vehicle went over.""They could not recover the Ford, Kellie. I was at the bottom of a canyon, to far down and too narrow for anything or anyone to reach. Their bodies are laying at the bottom of that God forsaken canyon, laying there without a final or proper place to rest! My God, they trusted me and I failed them. I left them to the mercy of those men. Men that have never been found, out there, living their lives out, doing something I will Never, ever be able to do again!""Mark, focus here please. You came with the rescue unit. You jumped out ahead of the others and you grabbed the man laying in the snow. You had beaten him nearly to death by the time they pulled you off of him. The man was in the intensive unit for 3 weeks, most of his real injuries given to him by you.""You almost talk like you feel sorry for the man! I should have been allowed to kill him! A lot of the officers told me they wished they had let me kill him! God, how I wanted to do just that!"Laredo was now in sight. The time was now if she were going to tell Mark why she was here with him. She shuddered inside at the thought of telling him. She feared how he might react and now wished she had never gone searching for him. It was too late for those thoughts now. They were in Laredo and now and she prayed silently that he would understand. She needed him to or all would be lost for her. She pulled the car off the side of the road, just outside the city limits. Mark sat staring at her."You received a letter a week ago Mark. It had no return address on it and no indication who had sent it.""All it said was that the answers I seek are here, in a warehouse on the East side of the city. That is why I..." Mark suddenly turned around to face Kellie. He stared hard at her and felt anger begin to build up inside of him. Recognition set in and he reached out and grabbed her by the throat. "You know all of this because you wrote the note! You know so much about me and that guy left in the snow because he is your father! I recognize you now from the court room. You defended him and tried to convince the court he was knocked out and didn't actually play any guilty part!""Please Mark, I can not breathe! You are choking me!"Mark suddenly realized what he was doing and let go of her throat. He pushed himself away from her. His mind was going a million miles an hour. "Why!? What the hell are you doing here? And what does the daughter of one of the men that killed my family, right before Thanksgiving want with me!?""My father told me something recently that no one else knows. Something that might be of interest to you. He is to die in the electric chair in four days.""Good! Sorry I won't be there to see it happen!""I understand why you hate him but he is My Father! What I know I hope will keep him alive but I need your help. Please stay with me until we finish this.I beg of you, please."Mark stared into her eyes, She was crying and the fear in her eyes was matched only with the look of pleading. He would wait and see what she had to show him.

I am now on HubPages

I have begun writing more on HubPages.com. There are ample reasons for being there but mainly, I can do what I love best...Write. There is an incredible number of very talented writers on the site. You are sure to find an author or two that you enjoy following their writing. I would like to think I am one of them. Please join me there for some relaxing and reading.